when strength meets love

chapter one:ikoka village

The early morning sun cast long shadows over Ikoka village, but Eki was already up, hauling water from the stream. Her arms, hardened by years of labor, barely felt the strain anymore. She was only twenty-four, but she carried herself with the weariness of someone twice her age.

"I don't know how you do it," her mother isoken, , murmured as Eki set the water pot down in their kitchen. The older woman's face was lined with worry, her thin frame worn down from years of disappointment.

Eki wiped her hands on her wrapper and scoffed. "If I don't, who will? Certainly not him."

She didn't need to say his name. Her father was likely still sprawled on his mat in the next room, snoring off last night's palm wine. Useless. Worthless. Just like the other men in this godforsaken village.

Eki's lip curled in disgust as her mind drifted to the stories she'd grown up hearing. The curse of Oba Ewuakpe. Three hundred years ago, they said, the king had cursed the men of Ikoka to be weak, lazy, and aimless. She didn't care for the tale; to her, it was just an excuse. A way to justify the laziness of men who refused to take responsibility for their lives.

Her hatred had been shaped not just by her father's failures but by every man who had ever walked into her life, only to bring pain and disappointment. The boy who'd promised her the world and left her heart in pieces. The men in the village who sat around all day, drinking and gossiping while women like her broke their backs to keep things afloat.

Eki didn't just hate men-she despised them. "The world would be better off without them," she often muttered to herself.

Marriage? She scoffed at the thought. She'd vowed long ago never to let herself be tied to a man. She didn't need one. She didn't want one. Her only goal was to work hard enough to give her mother a better life, to pull them both out of the endless cycle of struggle that Ikoka seemed to demand of its women.

And so, Eki poured her energy into work, into taking charge of her family as though she were the head of the household. Her father had forfeited that title long ago. In her mind, she had no use for men.

At least, that was what she believed.